After free laptops, Akhilesh government to distribute smart phones

Lucknow, Sep 5 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday announced that his government would soon begin the ‘Samajwadi Smartphone Scheme’ “for benefit of all sections of the society”.

He also added that by rolling out world’s largest free laptop distribution scheme, the Samajwadi Party government had ushered in “Digital Democracy” in the state and express hope that the new and ambitious scheme will enable two-way communication between the people and the state government.

The chief minister stated said that this would be helpful in spreading awareness among the people of various policies and schemes and that people’s feedback would also reach the state government.

According to an official, the Samajwadi smartphone would be equipped with latest modern technology and would have all facilities of a smartphone, a detailed unified application, which would have audio, video and textual information about the state government.

The phone’s app would also have features for rural people, frames about latest rates of agro products, details of best practices and weather related data as well. Similar information would be available for milk producers, along with job and vacancy information, reading material for students, entrance and results, loan and other financial assistance details for small-time businessmen.

Akhilesh Yadav underlined that the selection of beneficiaries for the phone would be completely transparent and the applicants would not have to go to any government officer for this. The system also has a facility where in after online selection of the beneficiary, smart phones would be straight away dispatched to the beneficiaries’ addresses.

This will keep away possibility of any corruption. The registration process would be initiated within one month.

He also said that applicants have to be minimum high school pass, should be bona fide residents of UP, and of 18 years of age as on January 1, 2017. Applicants whose parents work wth the state government will not be eligible as well as those working with the government.

In the same manner, people applying for the smartphone, if working in private sector, can only apply if their annual income is less that Rs 2 lakh. During online registration, a scanned copy of the high school certificate has to be uploaded and no other paper would be required.

The smartphone would be distributed in the second half of 2017 on first come/registration first basis. Applicants will have to self-attest information provided by them at the time of registration and they would be getting information through SMS alerts, at every step.